During
these Easter weeks we read from St. John’s Gospel. The passages are very deep
and in today’s text (Jn 21:1-19) there are many things going on. Perhaps we might focus on
Peter and the journey he has made:
We
all have experience of friendships and relationships that break down. When that
happens it feels like a death - we grieve, we get angry, we have regrets, we
wonder ‘what if..?’ Three times Peter denied Jesus and today we hear Peter
express his love for Jesus three times. Jesus welcomes Peter back into
community with him. Peter experiences resurrection; he is given new life. There
is no situation, no matter how terrible, that Jesus cannot transform, forgive,
welcome back, restore. Peter says to Jesus – ‘Lord you know everything’ and we too must remember that Jesus knows
our hearts, He knew Peter’s heart. The questioning here is perhaps so that
Peter can hear it for himself. The relationship is restored and we, like Peter,
are once more invited in to “Follow me!”
“Lord, we thank you for people who have
forgiven us, not a mean, calculating forgiveness, not harping on the ways in
which we wronged them, but forgiving with the forgiveness of Jesus, so that it
was like coming back from a hard night’s work, and seeing some bread there and
a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it and the very person we had hurt saying,
‘Come and have breakfast.’ And we not having to ask any questions because we
knew that everything was forgiven.” (Michel de
Verteuil)
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